Spartan Gold: Pyrenees Mountains and more

pg 92

"The biggest concentration [of a species of beech wood] is in the Pyrenees Mountains.

The Pyrenees (Spanish: Pirineos or Pirineo, French: Pyrénées, Catalan: Pirineus, Occitan: Pirenèus, Aragonese: Perinés, Basque: Pirinioak or Auñamendiak), also spelled Pyrénées, is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain. It separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe, and extends for about 491 km (305 mi) from the Bay of Biscay (Cap Higuer) to the Mediterranean Sea (Cap de Creus).

For the most part, the main crest forms a massive divider between France and Spain, with the tiny country of Andorra sandwiched in between. Catalonia and Navarre have historically extended on both sides of the mountain range, with small northern portions now in France and much larger southern parts now in Spain.

"It's calfskin - six layers of it - soaked in linseed oil (oilskin),

Calfskin is a leather or membrane produced from the hide of a calf. Calfskin is particularly valuable because of its softness, and non fine grain. It is commonly used for high-quality shoes, wallets and similar products, as well as traditional leather book bindings. In Spanish, the word is "Novillo", referring to leather from animals less than three years old.

Fine calfskin is one of the skins used for vellum and parchment manuscripts.

Oilskin is type of fabric: canvas with a skin of oil applied to it as waterproofing, often linseed oil. Old types of oilskin included:-

* Heavy cotton cloth waterproofed with linseed oil.
* Sailcloth waterproofed with a thin layer of tar.

It's [ink] a mixture of Aconium arboreum Schwartzkopf - Black rose

Black roses (roses of black color) do not exist in nature as such, but nevertheless have been created in laboratories. Botanists have manipulated roses' genes through preliminary cross breeding, creating a hybrid black rose. They are often featured in fiction with many different meanings and titles such as black magic, barkarole, black beauty Tuscany superb, black Jade and baccara and death varieties of roses. The flowers commonly called black roses are actually a very dark red color. Some roses are called black, but are actually just a dark shade of red, purple, or maroon. The color of a rose may be deepened by placing a dark rose in a vase of water mixed with black ink.

spitting beetle native to the islands in the Ligurian sea

The Ligurian Sea (Italian: Mar Ligure; French: Mer Ligurienne) is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between the Italian Riviera (Liguria and Tuscany) and the island of Corsica. The sea is probably named after the ancient Ligures people.

There is no such thing as a spitting beetle. Cussler is perhaps referring to a bombardier beetle:

Bombardier beetles are ground beetles (Carabidae) in the tribes Brachinini, Paussini, Ozaenini, or Metriini—more than 500 species altogether—which are most notable for the defense mechanism that gives them their name: When disturbed, the beetle ejects a noxious chemical spray in a rapid burst of pulses from special glands in its abdomen. The ejection is accompanied with a popping sound. A bombardier beetle produces and stores two reactant chemical compounds, hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide, in separate reservoirs in the rear tip of its abdomen. When threatened, the beetle contracts muscles that force the two reactants through valved tubes into a mixing chamber containing water and a mixture of catalytic enzymes. When combined, the reactants undergo a violent exothermic chemical reaction, raising the temperature to near the boiling point of water.

The corresponding pressure buildup forces the entrance valves from the reactant storage chambers to close, thus protecting the beetle's internal organs. The boiling, foul-smelling liquid partially becomes a gas (flash evaporation) and is expelled through an outlet valve into the atmosphere with a loud popping sound. The flow of reactants into the reaction chamber and subsequent ejection to the atmosphere occurs cyclically at a rate of about 500 times per second and with the total pulsation period lasting for only a fraction of a second. The gland openings of some African bombardier beetles can swivel through 270° and thrust between the insect's legs, so it can be discharged in a multitude of directions with considerable accuracy